Spanish media firm Prisa posts €48m loss

 Spanish media company Prisa, owner of the country's biggest-sellingdaily newspapers El Pais, on Wednesday reported fresh losses of 48 million euros($66 million) in the first quarter of 2014.The heavily indebted company made headlines last week by selling 56 percent of itspay-television platform Digital+ -- the Spain branch of subscription channel Canal+-- to Spanish telecom giant Telefonica for 725 million euros.Prisa posted a loss of 47.57 million euros for the first quarter of this year, followinglosses of 12 million euros in the same period in 2013 and 649 million euros for lastyear overall.Spain's media companies have been hit hard by years of recession, particularly by aslump in advertising.Prisa said its advertising revenues fell by 5.9 percent overall in Spain in the firstquarter, although they rose by three percent in neighbouring Portugal.Before selling off Digital+, Prisa said in April it had sold a 3.7 percent stake inMediaset Espana, a subsidiary of Italian ex-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's groupMediaset, for 121 million euros.